Love, peace, joy & harmony on Earth!

Should you envy the one percent?

Sadly it seems we have or are being led to a place of “envy” (synonyms: begrudge, resent) of what is now referred to as “the one percent”. We can easily find writings telling us how unfair wealth is distributed – well, most wealth is not distributed, it is earned. The top one percent of the population consists of many local people, some who put their savings and perhaps money borrowed at risk to start their small business. Some failed more than once until they learned enough to become successful. These are some of the local businesses we shop at or do business with in our communities. Many of these people have worked hard building their business and in the process have created jobs and opportunities for others. This is why many of them have achieved status in the top one percent financially and being in the top one percent does not automatically make a person evil.

There may be evil people in this world but they most likely are the trillionaires, if they do exist, and the people who run governments and in some cases the people who run corporations. My point here is to say it is wrong to lump all people of the top one percent into the same category. It is only a relative few at the top who may qualify for the evil list and that list is far less than one percent of the population. Think about it: one percent of the population is quite a large number of people! It is one in every hundred. And a point to remember, as long as we are free enough to start a business, we too have the same opportunity to join the ranks of the one percent by taking the risk and becoming a local business owner, this is always an option in a free society and it is also a choice that can also help others .

The other aspect of trying to demonize the top one percent and making them look evil, is that by doing so, people are discouraged from trying to become like them. After all, no one wants to become one of those hated people! So what is encouraged instead, is to feel like a victim of this evil one percent who are sucking our blood. Yes, they are the enemy! Money is evil! Look at all those rich people! They take everything away from us!

That is the path of thought we are supposed to follow, and never even consider the possibility that most of the one percent actually got to where they are with hard work and sticking with the dream they had. Yes, they actually earned their position in the top one percent and it’s that simple! It’s hard work though! So optimally what should happen is that we look up to these people, serving as good precedence for us but instead in today’s world we see the opposite trend publicized (=as in members of the one percent are evil) and again it is done with the purpose that we never even try to become like these successful people. After all, it is hard work, you actually have to work hard and deal with all kinds of obstacles in the process, and so it is so much easier to complain and be a victim.

The point is that most of the one percent earned what they have with their hard work and as long as there is freedom in the society, each and every one of us can do the same or even better. The sky is the limit folks! So next time someone tells you to hate this and that, think twice. BTW hating anything or anybody will never harm those being hated, it will however harm you. So there is really no benefit to it whatsoever.